10.1007/s11625-016-0389-x.
Abstract
The Yasuní-ITT Initiative was an innovative development
proposal based on the non-production of oil in Yasuní National Park in Ecuador,
in exchange for international compensation, eitherin the form of direct payment
or payment for environmental services. My aim is to investigate how the
different actors understand this compensation for non-production of oil in
Ecuador, an oil dependent country. Using a chronological review of the Initiative
and forty in-depth interviews with key players, I critically engage the
‘environmental narrative’ around the Initiative inspired by sumak kawsay -a
philosophy of life based on non-mercantilist values, known as “well living” in
English or “buen vivir” in Spanish- and degrowth. In this article I argue that
understanding the Initiative as an environmental matter and not as a problem of
oil rent dependency exemplifies the limits of sumak kawsay and degrowth as
proposals for an alternative to development. Results from Yasuní show that the
Initiative ended up reproducing the fictions of nature valuation instead of
de-linking nature from the valuation process. By drawing on a critical
political economic framework, this paper shows that categories such as “dependency”
and “rent” are fundamental in understanding the challenges of moving away from
extraction-based development in developing countries. In summary, failing to
differentiate between payment for the non-production of oil and compensation
from the environmental services, Yasuní was a ´lost ‘opportunity for a
bottom-up debate on what to produce and what not.
Keywords
Sumak kawsayDegrowthYasuníNatureRentDependency
non-production of oil
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http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11625-016-0389-x?wt_mc=Internal.Event.1.SEM.ArticleAuthorOnlineFirst
